FAO emergency assistance reaches more than 30,000 Mozambican families

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FAO emergency assistance reaches more than 30,000 Mozambican families

12:44 CAT | 24 Jan 2017

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Just over 30,000 families are benefiting from the Emergency Assistance Program for Containment of the Effects of Drought implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in coordination with the Mozambican Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA).

The program, which integrates three FAO projects, aims to reduce the food insecurity of families affected by climate change by providing maize, bean and pumpkin seeds, as well as sprays and herbicides.

The products are intended for the worst-affected small farmers in the southern province of Gaza, and in Manica, Sofala and Tete provinces in the central region of Mozambique, according to an FAO press release.

According to FAO’s emergency program coordinator Inácio Pereira, the distribution process is proceeding at a satisfactory pace, with some 75-80 per cent of farmers already benefiting.

“The information we have so far is that the process is proceeding normally and it looks like it will be a good campaign as the growing areas are in good condition. It is raining in the distribution areas, which fuels hope of a good agricultural campaign,” Pereira says.

Pereira notes that complementary resilience activities in affected areas include the introduction of drip irrigation systems and local seed multiplication for distribution among communities.

Conservation-based agriculture practices, as well as improved livestock breeding and broiler farming in communities, were also being introduced.

Along with other countries in the Southern Africa region, Mozambique has suffered severe drought this year, followed in some areas by above-average rains.

According to the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC), Mozambique’s central and southern provinces are worst affected, with only 10 percent of farmers harvesting in the first part of the 2015/16 agricultural year.

Source: AIM Moçambique